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The relationship between parenting styles, career decision self-efficacy, and career maturity of Asian American college students

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PARENTING STYLES, CAREER DECISION SELF-EFFICACY, AND CAREER MATURITY OF ASIAN AMERICAN COLLEGE STUDENTS
by
Maryann Wu
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE ROSSIER SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF EDUCATION
May 2009
Copyright 2009 Maryann Wu

The purpose of this study was to bridge a gap in the current literature by exploring the relationship between parenting styles and acculturation on the career development of Asian American college students. Career development was examined using the theoretical constructs of career decision self-efficacy and career maturity. Participants included 312 Asian American undergraduate students who completed an online survey consisting of demographic background information, the Parental Authority Questionnaire, the Career Decision Making Self-Efficacy -- Short Form, the Career Maturity Inventory -- Revised Attitude Scale, and the Asian American Multidimensional Acculturation Scale. Results have suggested that both parenting styles and acculturation are important influences on the career development of Asian American college students. Authoritative parenting was significantly correlated with higher levels of career decision self-efficacy on all five subscales, including: Self-Appraisal, Occupational Information, Goal Selection, Planning, and Problem Solving. Authoritarian parenting was correlated with higher levels of career decision self-efficacy on two dimensions, including: Self-Appraisal and Occupational Information. Acculturation to European American culture was found to be the most significant predictor variable for four out of five subscales of career decision self-efficacy, except for the subscale of Goal Selection, in which enculturation to one’s culture of origin was found to be the most significant predictor variable. Although authoritative and authoritarian parenting were not correlated with career maturity, permissive parenting was found to be significantly correlated with lower levels of career maturity. Permissive parenting was ultimately found to be the most significant predictor variable for lower scores on career maturity.; Results of this study re-emphasize the importance of including familial and cultural variables when exploring the career development of Asian Americans. These findings also continue to lend support to the suggestion that authoritarian parenting may have different connotations for students coming from Asian American households and may subsequently have positive influences on certain aspects of career decision self-efficacy. Lastly, while acculturation was found to be one of the most important variables, enculturation was also found to contribute to the career development of students, highlighting the important need for the use of a bidimensional acculturation model. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PARENTING STYLES, CAREER DECISION SELF-EFFICACY, AND CAREER MATURITY OF ASIAN AMERICAN COLLEGE STUDENTS
by
Maryann Wu
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE ROSSIER SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF EDUCATION
May 2009
Copyright 2009 Maryann Wu